Mei Juan Luo
Tai Ji Master
Mei Juan Luo has more than fifteen years of experience teaching Tai Ji to students from around the world. Daughter of a Kung Fu master, Mei loved the martial arts from a very young age. Her father being very traditional, refused to teach his skills to a girl. So Mei took up dancing classes until she was old enough to learn by herself. Initially Mei started to take lessons in Yang style Tai Ji from local teachers and practiced both the long and short forms. Having already studied Yuan (circle) Neng (energy) Gong with a Wudang Taoist Master, at the age of seventeen she also learned acupuncture from Doctor Lei Long Hung who introduced Mei to traditional medicine. Now practicing Tai Ji every day, Mei wanted to learn more styles and this led her in 1996 to Chen Village, the home of the Chen Family and the 19th Generation Master, Chen Zheng Lei who is recognized by the government as one of the ten great martial arts masters of China.
Already teaching students in the park and by the riverside in Yangshuo, in 2003 Mei applied to become a Tai Ji Master and took the written and practical exams which also required her to demonstrate her teaching skills with a group of beginners before the examination panel. Having been accredited as a 6th Level Master by the Chinese Wushu Association, and encouraged by her teachers she began to enter competitions, winning silver medals at the Chen Village Elite Tai Ji Tournament in 2004.
Mei has continued to win gold and silver medals for Tai Ji Quan and sword at regional and international competitions. Though she is proficient at both sword and bare hand styles, her specialty is a form of freestyle Chen Tai Ji Quan that allows her to select steps from the Lao Jia and the Xin Jia (long forms) and improvise her own sequences. Since 2003 Mei has been apprenticed to Chen Zheng Lei, and returns annually to Chen Village for three weeks to study with him.
In 2007 the Chinese Wushu Association invited Mei to be examined as an Advanced Level Wushu Coach and she was subsequently invited to participate in the Beijing Olympics Wushu Competition in 2008: Mei won two gold medals and a ticket to the Olympics, and won two further golds at the 2009 national Wushu Competition in Shanghai.
Also in 2009, Mei won a gold medal as best Tai Ji instructor as she led her student group to great success at the regional competition in Guilin, China, where several students brought home medals. Mei speaks Chinese and English.
